Moby Dick

For my last blog post I’m going to take a break from nature and the environment to discuss one of my favorite scenes in this novel. When we were discussing in class how Ahab’s speech during the chapter “The symphony” was one of the greatest written portions of this book, I really couldn’t help but to agree. In this chapter we see Ahab bare his soul to Starbuck in a way that completely and tragically humanized him as a character. It left the tone of the rest of the novel in a sort of determinist, and again tragically drawn out opera of moments. We knew he was going to die, we knew he might take others with him, but it was the way things had to unfold. They just couldn’t go any other way. This is why I believe this chapter is called the symphony, because at this point the novel seemed really like a great piece of music, with the meloncholy notes already written, just not yet played. And yes I know how dramatic I sounded just now. From this chapter we really knew how it all might end. Even the rest of the book seemed to rise to a musical climax of chase and confrontation, and end as mournfully as we knew it would.

“…lower not when I do; when branded Ahab gives chase to Moby Dick. That hazard shall not be thine. No, no! Not with the far away home I see in that eye!”

How at this point could any hatred the reader had towards Ahab not be replaced by a sort of resigned sadness. This crazy obsessed man just described how possessed he was by this vengeance he could not stop, and begged his first mate not to go with him, because he wanted him to return home at least. Starbucks hatred and mutiny for the old man also somewhat died to be replaced by an admiration for this noble but dammed soul. Don’t get me wrong, I still blame Ahab and his obsession for destroying the lives of so many sailors and families, but Melville made it a point, at the very end, to sympathize with a character we’ve been afraid of and hated for most of the novel. When at the same time I dislike when authors make antagonists more complex and likable because it makes me more sad and less able to hate them, it is really a great addition to a character.

In terms of environment and nature, I don’t remember exactly

It is not really opinion, but closer to fact that Ahab, the captain of the doomed ship the Pequod, was an unhealthily obsessed man. He turned his feelings of imasculinity, his pain, his insanity, on a reasonless creature that caused him the loss of his leg when he was viciously hunting it down.

We discussed in class how Ahab’s hunt for Moby dick was a way for him to subdue nature, to take control of the world in such a way to be considered hubris. I can somewhat see this mode of thinking in how the final confrontation with Moby Dick played out. It’s easy to see this ending in two different ways. An epic conflict drawing to a close, a struggle, the ship taken down by a whirlpool of monumentous proportions as the captain shouts final words of unending hate at the great leviathon that caused his destruction. That really sounds the stuff of epic poetry in itself, or at least Pirates of the Caribbean. On the other hand though, it was incredibly senseless. Maybe a hundred sailors’ lives cut down short for a madman’s obsession of a creature that couldn’t feel hate, or vengeance. I can’t decide which way Melville intended it though, one way or both.

But to my original point, does nature in this book retaliate in such a way to punish Ahab who as a man saught to assert his dominion and vengeance over danger? I could definitely see it that way.

“…not too late is it, even now, the third day, to desist. See!Moby Dick seeks thee not. It is toug, though that madly seekest him.” (546)

It is this line that for me that truly held nature blameless in this struggle. It wasn’t a novel about a war between nature and Ahab, but a war between a man and himself, and what he couldn’t let go.

The Epilogue is fascinating to me for a variety of reasons: partly for its sheer brevity, partly for the hint at survivor’s guilt, and also partly for what it implies about nature. The sea, which had become so violent in response to Ahab and the Pequod, is suddenly much more calm after the Pequod’s destruction. While before (in the final chapter), “[r]etribution, swift vengeance, eternal malice were in [Moby Dick’s] whole aspect” (506), after the whale destroys the ship “the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago” (508). This idea is described in even greater detail in the Epilogue. There, the “unharming sharks, they glided by [Ishmael] as if with padlocks on their mouths; the savage sea-hawks sailed with sheathed beaks” (509). It is incredible to describe creatures sharks, notoriously deadly creatures in most literature, as “unharming” with “padlocks on their mouths.” Suddenly, the sea is no longer a frightening and deadly place to Ishmael. In fact, it seems that fate or destiny (or perhaps nature itself) wants Ishamael to survive. It seems to me that Ishmael is implying that once nature has defeated man and his violent tendencies, it wants someone to live to tell the tale so that perhaps it might be a lesson or instruction to others. Again, this appears to link all of nature with itself; in other words, each entity and being in nature seems to communicate with each other–they all act in “concert” (like in “The Symphony”). In the Epilogue, not only is the sea now calm, but so are the sharks and “savage sea-hawks.” The balance of nature has been restored and the sea, and nature in general, continues just as it did “five thousand years ago” (508). I think the interesting implication here is that nature can (and does) exist without us, without humans, and that it will continue to do so in the future. Nature has disarmed another potential threat and will continue on in its seemingly peaceful “nature.”

I found this final section of the text quite interesting, but I still have some questions, and I am curious what other people think. Does Melville view this text as a cautionary tale, a way of warning people about attempting to destroy nature? How does fate play a role in the final section of the book? Is Ishmael correct when he attempts to make meaning of the signs he sees around him, thereby determining that his fate was to retell this tale? Or is Melville saying something about survivor’s guilt and, by extension, implying that fate isn’t really there, but is rather just our way of attempting to make meaning out of what happens in our lives?

As I slaved over my thesis for the past few weeks, I came across some interesting information that made me stop and re-imagine the novel. My thesis is on Matthew Vassar’s brewery, and while looking for some of the ways in which he diversified his investments, I found that he was a founding partner in the “Poughkeepsie Whaling Company,” incorporated on April 20, 1832. In fact, a year later a second, rival whaling company was founded, and during this period whaling ships were based up and down the Hudson River. One of the first ventures for the whaling company was to send a ship on a four year cruise, where, unlike the crew in Moby Dick, they mutinied and executed the captain. The industry did not last particularly long in Poughkeepsie, about a decade, but this got me thinking.

The beginning of the book places so much emphasis on Nantucket, and throughout the rest of the novel it shows up again and again. Melville obviously chose to begin his novel there because of how dependent it is on whaling, but what if he had chosen Poughkeepsie, or another town where whaling wasn’t the center of the universe but just another industry where businessmen were trying to make money? Would the crew be made up of similar people, or would there be mostly non-whalers, locals who were looking for a job and found one aboard a ship. There is no more information about the mutiny mentioned above, but after reading Moby Dick I can’t really imagine anything more than the captain’s insanity driving the crew to action. For our dear Founder, however, it just meant one failed investment among several very, very successful ones.

This from Douglas Harper, who operates the Online Etymology Dictionary and, as it happens, lives rather near me:

Symphony

late 13c., the name of various musical instruments, from O.Fr. symphonie “harmony” (12c.), from L. symphonia “a unison of sounds, harmony,” from Gk. symphonia “harmony, concert,” from symphonos “harmonious,” from syn- “together” + phone “voice, sound”[.]

Thus, at their most basic, the elements of the word “symphony” can be used to describe sounds together. In this sense, many things in chapter 132 make symphony. When Melville describes the weather by writing, “The firmaments of air and sea were hardly separable in that all-pervading azure,” he creates a sense of fluidity between elements of nature, and in going on to provide each with masculine or feminine characteristics, creates a harmony of both the natural world and gender. He explores this idea further by associating “gentle… feminine” birds with the air and “murderous… masculine” beasts (leviathans, sharks, etc.) with the sea, and by illustrating the natural balance created by the two groups.

Immediately after Ahab enters the scene, however, Ishmael’s tone changes dramatically:

Tied up and twisted; gnarled and knotted with wrinkles; haggardly firm and unyielding; his eyes glowing like coals, that still glow in the ashes of ruin; untottering Ahab stood forth in the clearness of the morn; lifting his splintered helmet of a brow to the fair girl’s forehead of heaven.

By combining all these thoughts with semicolons, Melville links them through a sort of simultaneity; Ahab’s disruption of the symphonic beauty of nature is emphasized by having all the details of his entry be read at once. Were this chapter a musical symphony, this paragraph would be pure dissonance. However, the trend of classical music is to resolve dissonance, and despite Ahab’s best efforts, he cannot stay such a resolution… and what a beautiful resolution it is:

But the lovely aromas in that enchanted air did at last seem to dispel, for a moment, that cantankerous thing in his soul. That glad, happy air, that winsome sky, did at last stroke and caress him… Ahab dropped a tear into the sea; nor did all the Pacific contain such wealth as that one wee drop.

If Melville is a composer, this is his Romantic testament to the power of nature. Nowhere in the book—and this is saying something—is there a clearer or more powerful example of the triumph of nature over the will of man. Until the end, maybe.

While reading this strange chapter I couldn’t decide whether this was some kind of ghost-whale, small and skittish whale, or if this was all in their heads. And afterwards, I couldn’t really imagine the point of this chapter, I mean it consisted of a strange occurence at sea of the ship constantly hearing a spout for a few days, with no sign of a whale, getting completely unsettled after a while, then it just stopped happening. I can understand how this can be seen as maybe this added layer of mysticism to the ocean, or a question of men’s sanity, or both, but it was the unresolved issue that left me if anything slightly upset. But to analyze…

The ocean has always been a mystical thing in human history. In any ancient culture large bodies of waters are attributed with Gods, monsters, and sometimes given both destructive and nurturive qualities. The spirit spout reminded me a little bit about that. Even though it was the 18th centurey, this scene reminded me of the odyssey somewhat, of Jason and the Argonauts, any old sea story really of sailors on a quest encountering mythical things in the ocean. I’m still not convinced that the Pequod didn’t just encounter a whale or something they never were able to spot though. When we discussed in class about this event being caused by mass delusion I’m not sure I bought it. I could understand if it was just Ishmael just hearing it or another member of the crew but the fact that they all heard it I think shows that it was a real event, whether not it was natural or supernatural was left probably ambigiously by Melville in my opinion. Though he did make it a point to make it sound as mysterious as possible.

What I found most interesting about the novel Moby Dick is the way in which it calls into question the power and the status of man. While humans tend to think that we are above all else, as we cultivate land, hunt sea-life, and take what we want when we want it. While I am unsure of the intentionality of the message, I believe the novel calls into question how powerful we really are.

Most notable we see this in the death of the Pequod’s crew. Ahab, after believing that he was more powerful then the whale, and thus, able to kill him, succeeds in getting not only himself, but his whole crew killed (with the exception of Ishmael), and even his ship destroyed.  It seems to send the message that when you underestimate, disrespect, and exploit the earth and its creatures, no good will come of it.

As we discussed earlier in the semester, this could be a larger message about man’s exploitation of the earth. If we continue to abuse the earth, just like Ahab in his quest for dominance over the whale, most likely we will end up killing ourselves before we succeed in killing the earth.

The novel also suggests the cyclical nature of the universe. Just as the Pequod chases whales, specifically, Moby Dick, the Pequod gets chased by the pirate ship in the Grand Armada.  This could serve to illustrate how ocean life, and life in general, is more cyclical and less hierarchical then we would like to think. Everyone who lives, will one day die. All powerful nations are eventually surpassed by the power of another. And perhaps one day man will be replaced in its supremacy by something else. There are larger forces at play, and when it comes down to it, no one is all powerful. Man, therefore, will not succeed in selfishly serving his own purposes, without consequences to himself.

Here is a link the Khan’s death in Star Treck 2: Wrath of Khan. He quoted Ahab like 5 times with this movie, and here even quotes Ahab’s last line…

In this chapter Ishmael sicusses his thoughts on the fear felt by this particular albino whale, stretching out to other albino people and creatures. This chapter really made me think and examine my own feelings on this God-like creature they’ve been chasing for most of the novel. I don’t feel its the whale being white that first casts it as such an impressive creature. It is the harpoons in its back, the stories told of its anger and destruction that firsts cast it as a monstrous and powerful thing. The way I see it, the fact that it is in addition that is has this white and rare phenotype that turns it into something more in the realm of myth, something fearful and God-like. Something like a unicorn for example, the violent terry pratchett ones that are known for goring people that is.

If this was just a regular, unstabbed, unfrightful white whale I think the response would be something more like, “Cool! a white whale… Let’s kill it!” The idea which we discussed in class about perceptions is accurate I believe, as many of the mythological and spiritual connections solely being channeled from the crew itself. Albinoism has been a recessive trait present in nature for an incredibly long time. It is only when it is connected to the ferocity seen in moby dick and things like white sharks that it becomes such a metaphor for transcendent ideas.

I ‘ve always heard that the human race is on the top of the food chain, and in that way have assumed that humans are part of the natural order of things. With the evolution of tools, human beings have learned to shape technology to further their interests to hunt down animals of all shapes and sizes, even whales. While reading the chapter “Stubb kills a whale,” I was actually horrified by the violence depicted in the chapter. The ship stalked this gentle way, and in a ferociouisly gleeful manner tore it apart. Was this right, I wondered, is this how things are supposed to be? But I guess looking around in nature, this kind of predatory action is seen pretty ubiquotously, lions and gazelles, a pack of hyenas, those dog alien things in Avater. So maybe what really scared me about that chapter is to see human beings become something so less than human, something bestial.

Our society has always had different view points on nature. On one hand, some people feel thatq things would be better off if soceity went closer to nature, and depart from teeming industrialism that pollutes and sets us significantly apart from Nature. On another, the ability to create tools, and whatever path that leads have always been what defines us as homo sapiens, as wise. No matter how far technologically we become, it will be pretty far into it before we are considered inhuman. Isn’t anything that springs up from our unique cognitive mind, from our wisdom, a mark of this humanity? It is when we closer we become to nature, disregard tools and the mental impressions of a society that people begin to be called something less than human. To see the brutality of this crew at this chapter is something that disturbs the sheltered Vassar college student in me.

“sent back its reflection into every face, so they all glowed to each other like red men”

I remember reading another student’s post on Chapter 132 (“The Symphony”) and how this chapter describes the environment and nature as being gendered. I found that post intriguing and wanted to explore those themes further. In this chapter, t is clear that Melville describes the sky as being feminine and the sea masculine:

It was a clear steel-blue day. The firmaments of air and sea were hardly separable in that all-pervading azure; only, the pensive air was transparently pure and soft, with a woman’s look, and the robust and man-like sea heaved with long, strong, lingering swells, as Samson’s chest in his sleep.

Hither, and thither, on high, glided the snow-white wings of small, unspeckled birds; these were the gentle thoughts of the feminine air; but to and fro in the deeps, far down in the bottomless blue, rushed mighty leviathans, sword-fish, and sharks; anf these were the strong, troubled, murderous thinkings of the masculine sea (478).

My question is: why does Melville ascribe these qualities to nature? What is the intent behind making the sea and sky appear to be in some type of opposition to each other (at least sexually)? This is further complicated when Melville writes that “though thus contrasting within, the contrast was only in shades and shadows without; those two seemed one; it was only the sex, as it were, that distinguished them” (478). So although the sea and sky are different genders, they are still viewed as essentially one entity (nature). In this case, it seems that nature is described this way to provide a direct contrast with Ahab, who is determined to destroy Moby Dick (clearly a part of nature). Ahab is described as being “[t]ied up and twisted; gnarled and knotted with wrinkles; haggardly firm and unyielding; his eyes glowing like coals, that still glow in the ashes of ruin; […] lifting his splintered helmet of a brow to the fair girl’s forehead of heaven” (478). Here, Ahab is depicted as a violent, disgusting being who appears ready to battle (or perhaps plunder and rape) nature. What does it mean that Ahab is going to attempt to fight against the “masculine” sea, instead of the “feminine” air? Does this make it seem more like an actual battle, instead of some sexualized conquest? Of course, Ahab is also destroyed by the sea, which makes me wonder if Melville is commenting on how many masculine beings can actually exist together on Earth. It seems that nature is its own husband and wife (so to speak), which also happen to be essentially one and the same with contrasts “only in shades and shadows.” Although Ishmael laments how oblivious nature was “of old Ahab’s close-coiled woe,” it later seems that nature was (in some way) quite aware of Ahab and prepared to handle him (478).

I found this chapter fascinating and am still confused about what to make of it. It seems like one could view the “symphony” as the interplay between all the facets of nature, which create something beautiful (perhaps even artful or musical). And in another way, it appears that Ahab is merely a character in this play, someone who has to follow through with the show even though it leads to his eventual destruction. Even he has a part in this symphony, although at times he appears to be in direct opposition to it.